A transport and logistics company operating in Spain faces five blocks of environmental rules: Royal Decree 214/2025 on carbon footprint, the Sustainable Mobility Law 9/2025 with a deadline of 5 December 2026, low emission zones, the European vehicle and fuel rules, and Regulation (EU) 2026/1030 on calculating the emissions of transport services.
They do not bind in the same way or at the same time. Some are direct obligations with penalties, some determine which vehicles you will be able to buy, and some only kick in when you decide to disclose an emissions figure to a customer. This guide separates them and puts dates on each.
Master table: which environmental rules apply to transport and logistics
| Rule | Who it applies to | From when | What it requires you to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regulation (EU) 2026/1030, CountEmissions EU | Transport operators, hub operators, data intermediaries and calculation tool developers, for services starting or ending in the EU | Adopted on 29 April 2026; its obligations apply from 2 December 2030 | If you disclose the emissions of a service, calculate them with EN ISO 14083:2023, break them down per individual service, state that they were calculated in line with the regulation and keep supporting documentation |
| EN ISO 14083:2023 | Any operator or shipper quantifying transport chain emissions | Published in March 2023 | Common method for quantifying and reporting greenhouse gas emissions from freight and passenger transport chain operations, on a well to wheel basis |
| GLEC Framework | Voluntary, logistics providers and shippers | Current version aligned with ISO 14083 | Practical implementation guide for ISO 14083 in multimodal chains, with allocation rules and default data |
| Royal Decree 214/2025 | Companies with more than 250 employees that are public interest entities, or that exceed 20 million euros in assets or 40 million in turnover for two consecutive years, plus central government bodies | In force | Calculate the scope 1 and 2 carbon footprint (scope 3 voluntary) and have a reduction plan with a five year horizon and quantified targets. Registration in the MITECO registry is voluntary for private companies and mandatory for central government bodies |
| Sustainable Mobility Law 9/2025 and Royal Decree-Law 7/2026 | Public and private employers with work centres of more than 200 people or more than 100 per shift | 5 December 2026 | Approve a workplace sustainable mobility plan covering active mobility, collective transport, low emission vehicles, charging, shared mobility, remote work and road safety. Non compliance is a minor infringement of 101 to 2,000 euros and triggers repayment of public aid received |
| Law 9/2025, large activity centres | Industrial estates, logistics platforms and other large trip generating sites | Since the law entered into force on 5 December 2025 | Have a mobility plan for the site and someone accountable for coordinating it |
| Low emission zones: Law 7/2021 and Royal Decree 1052/2022 | Municipalities above 50,000 inhabitants, island territories, and municipalities above 20,000 that exceed air quality limit values | Required since 2023, with uneven municipal rollout | Access, circulation and parking restrictions based on the vehicle's environmental label. Shapes urban delivery and last mile fleets |
| Regulation (EU) 2024/1257, Euro 7 | Vehicle and engine manufacturers, with an indirect effect on fleet renewal | Phased application by vehicle category | New pollutant emission limits, brake and tyre emissions and battery durability requirements in type approval |
| Regulation (EU) 2019/1242, amended by Regulation (EU) 2024/1610 | Heavy duty vehicle manufacturers | Strengthened targets from 2030, with stages in 2035 and 2040 | Cuts average CO2 emissions of new heavy duty vehicles and adds reporting duties. Determines what you can buy at each fleet renewal |
| EU Emissions Trading System for maritime | Shipping companies with vessels of 5,000 gross tonnage or above calling at EU ports | Since 2024, phased in | Monitor, report and verify emissions in THETIS-MRV and surrender allowances for 40 % of 2024 emissions, 70 % of 2025 and 100 % from 2026. Covers 100 % of voyages between EU ports and 50 % of voyages starting or ending outside the EU |
| FuelEU Maritime, Regulation (EU) 2023/1805 | Ships operating in the EU | 1 January 2025 | Cut the greenhouse gas intensity of energy used on board by 2 % against the 91.16 gCO2e/MJ baseline, rising to 6 % in 2030 and 80 % by 2050 |
| ReFuelEU Aviation, Regulation (EU) 2023/2405 | Aviation fuel suppliers, aircraft operators and EU airports | 2025 | A 2 % sustainable aviation fuel share at EU airports and the 90 % uplift rule to prevent tankering |
| Emissions trading for road transport and buildings (ETS2) | Fuel suppliers, not hauliers | Starts in 2028 | Raises fuel cost through the supplier. It is not a direct administrative obligation for the haulier, but it is a cost factor to plan for |
| CSRD after Directive (EU) 2026/470 | Companies above 1,000 employees and 450 million euros of turnover, and their suppliers by cascade | Financial years starting on or after 1 January 2027 | Sustainability statement under the revised ESRS with limited assurance |
| Law 7/2022 on waste and contaminated soil | Professional waste transporters | In force | Prior notification to the regional authority before starting the activity, registration in the waste production and management registry, and documentation of shipments |
How are the emissions of a transport service calculated?
With EN ISO 14083:2023, titled quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions arising from transport chain operations. Published in March 2023, it replaced IWA 16:2015 and covers freight and passengers across all modes on a well to wheel basis, meaning it includes the emissions of producing and distributing the fuel or electricity, not only tailpipe emissions.
The GLEC Framework, developed by Smart Freight Centre, is the implementation guide for that standard in real logistics chains: how to allocate emissions between shipments sharing a vehicle, what to do with empty running, which default data to use when there is no primary figure. It is explained in detail in the guide to the GLEC Framework and in the post on applying the GLEC Framework to logistics emissions.
The practical difference: the ISO standard says what to calculate, GLEC says how to do it when reality is one truck shared by five customers.
What does the CountEmissions EU regulation require, and from when?
Regulation (EU) 2026/1030 of 29 April 2026 on the accounting of greenhouse gas emissions of transport services is the text previously known as CountEmissions EU. It does not force anyone to calculate emissions. What it does is harmonise the method.
- It is voluntary at the trigger point. It only applies when an entity decides to calculate and disclose emissions contractually or voluntarily for commercial purposes, or when other law requires it.
- Once you decide to disclose, the method stops being optional. You must use EN ISO 14083:2023, provide the figure disaggregated per individual service, supply supporting documentation on request and include the statement that emissions were calculated under the regulation.
- Output parameters are fixed: the total CO2 equivalent of the service plus at least one intensity parameter, which for freight is the mass of CO2e per tonne kilometre and for passengers the mass of CO2e per passenger kilometre.
- The obligations apply from 2 December 2030. Before that there are infrastructure milestones: the EU central database by 2 June 2028, the EU basic database by 2 December 2029 and the EU calculation tool by 2 June 2030.
For a logistics operator the reading is that there are years of legal headroom and zero commercial headroom: large shippers already ask for the figure by contract, and the regulation now defines what the correct answer looks like.
Spain specific duties: carbon footprint, workplace mobility and low emission zones
These three are the ones that generate a file if you ignore them.
Royal Decree 214/2025
It requires companies with more than 250 employees that are public interest entities, or that exceed 20 million euros in assets or 40 million in turnover for two consecutive years, to calculate their carbon footprint annually and to have an emissions reduction plan. Scopes 1 and 2 are mandatory and scope 3 is voluntary. The reduction plan needs a five year horizon and quantified targets, and under MITECO's December 2025 clarification note the footprint and the plan are published within six months of the end of the financial year. Registration in the MITECO registry remains voluntary for private companies. The detail sits in the post on carbon footprint registry obligations.
Workplace sustainable mobility plan
The Sustainable Mobility Law 9/2025 entered into force on 5 December 2025 with a twenty four month window to approve the plan. Royal Decree-Law 7/2026 cut that window to twelve months, moving the deadline to 5 December 2026. It affects work centres with more than 200 people or more than 100 per shift, public and private. For a logistics operator with a large platform this covers warehouse staff, not the fleet. The detail is in the posts on the Sustainable Mobility Law and on the mobility plan after Royal Decree-Law 7/2026.
Low emission zones
Law 7/2021 on climate change and energy transition and Royal Decree 1052/2022 require low emission zones in municipalities above 50,000 inhabitants, in island territories and in municipalities above 20,000 inhabitants that exceed air quality limit values. The actual rollout is uneven and access conditions vary city by city, so last mile fleet planning is done municipality by municipality rather than with one national rule.
Timeline for a transport company
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| 5 December 2026 | Deadline to approve the workplace sustainable mobility plan in centres above 200 people or 100 per shift |
| Financial year 2026 | First year in which shipping companies surrender allowances for 100 % of their covered emissions |
| 1 January 2027 | First mandatory reporting year under the revised ESRS for companies above the CSRD threshold |
| 2028 | Emissions trading for road transport and building fuels starts |
| 2 June 2028 | Deadline for the EU central database of transport emission factors |
| 2 December 2029 | Deadline for the EU basic database |
| 2 June 2030 | Deadline for the EU calculation tool |
| 2 December 2030 | Obligations under Regulation (EU) 2026/1030 start to apply |
What will customers ask for even when the law does not?
In transport and logistics, contractual pressure runs ahead of regulatory pressure. Three concrete fronts.
- Your customers' scope 3. Upstream and downstream transportation and distribution are two of the fifteen scope 3 categories in the GHG Protocol. When a shipper in scope of the CSRD builds its inventory, it needs your per shipment figure. That is where ISO 14083 stops being optional in practice. The scenario is developed in the CSRD preparation guide for transport companies.
- SQAS assessments. The Cefic safety, quality and sustainability assessment scheme is voluntary, but in chemical logistics it works as a gate: without a valid assessment many shippers will not contract you. Modules and preparation are covered in the SQAS solution.
- Tenders and contract specifications. More and more public and private tenders score an evidenced carbon footprint or a reduction plan. It is not a general legal obligation, it is an award criterion you lose if the figure is not calculated and traceable.
On top of that sits the carbon border adjustment mechanism, which does not bind the haulier but does reshape the import flows many logistics operators manage.
How to build compliance without duplicating work
- Inventory your obligations per site and per activity. A 300 person platform in a city with a low emission zone is not the same case as a twenty truck fleet with no warehouse.
- Calculate once, with the most demanding method. If you build the calculation on ISO 14083 and the GLEC Framework at shipment level, the same data aggregated serves Royal Decree 214/2025, the sustainability statement and shipper requests.
- Capture data inside operations, not in a separate sheet. Kilometres, fuel consumption, load carried and transport mode come out of the fleet management system and the ERP. Rebuilding them at year end is what breaks traceability.
- Keep the workplace mobility plan separate from fleet accounting. They are different duties with different subjects: one is about how your staff get to the site, the other about how your goods move.
- Document assumptions and factors. In an assurance engagement or an SQAS assessment, what gets reviewed is where each number came from.
- Review the calendar every six months. Between postponements and delegated acts, dates in this sector move. The cut of the workplace mobility plan window from twenty four to twelve months is the most recent example.
Frequently asked questions on environmental regulation in transport and logistics
Is it mandatory to calculate the emissions of every shipment?
Not as a general rule. Regulation (EU) 2026/1030 only kicks in when you decide to disclose the figure, and its obligations apply from 2 December 2030. What does bind right now is Royal Decree 214/2025, which requires companies in its scope to calculate their scope 1 and 2 carbon footprint and have a reduction plan.
What is the difference between ISO 14083 and the GLEC Framework?
ISO 14083:2023 is the international standard defining the method for calculating and reporting transport chain emissions. The GLEC Framework is the implementation guide for that standard in real logistics, with allocation rules between shipments, treatment of empty running and default values. They are used together.
Does a transport company with 250 drivers need a mobility plan?
It depends on the work centre, not on total headcount. The Law 9/2025 obligation applies to work centres with more than 200 people or more than 100 per shift, with a deadline of 5 December 2026. The plan covers how employees commute to the site, not fleet operations.
Does emissions trading affect road freight?
Not directly. The scheme for road transport and building fuels falls on fuel suppliers rather than hauliers, and it starts in 2028. The impact reaches you through fuel prices. In maritime there is a direct obligation on the shipping company since 2024.
Can the same calculation serve the MITECO registry and a customer asking for GLEC data?
Partly. The MITECO registry works with the organisational footprint while the customer asks for a per service or per shipment figure. If the calculation is built up from operational data under ISO 14083, aggregating to an organisational footprint is straightforward. The reverse does not work: you cannot break an annual total down to a specific shipment.
Almost all of the above rests on the same foundation: operational data captured with traceability and calculated once with the right method. You can see how that is organised in the software for transportation managers and in Manglai's GLEC solution.
